A Day on the SRP Campaign Trail: Kampot Province

Mu Sochua rainsing SRP party sign in Tani commune, Kampot province (All photos: SRP)

Mu Sochua talking to villagers who have gathered for the occasion
Mu Sochua talking to villagers
Dialogue between Mu Sochua and villagers

16-May-2010
Cambodia

At the Tani commune in the Kontrong village, Mu Sochua, deputy Kosal Chin, and commune supporters engaged in putting up an SRP sign. The gathering brought many people from other parties, a product of the SRP's ability to create and restore a democratic and transparent leadership, even at the grassroots level. The new SRP sign is an important symbolic change within the community, signifying that the area is now a place which puts its trust into the Sam Rainsy Party

Kosal Chin, Mu Sochua, and others had a conversation with the commune. Here they spoke about the relationship between the government and the people, stressing that it is the role of the government to listen to the needs of the people and the role of the people is to report problems as well as commentate on progress made within the community.

After the Tani commune, we moved to the Trapaing Rou village for a women's work shop. Here, Mu Sochua talked about important issues concerning the lives of Cambodian women today. She discussed three issues which are themes among Mu Sochua's speeches. She talked about health care and gender, especially concerning reproductive rights and the dangers of pregnancy during delivery. She also brought up matters of education and women while encouraging the women to be a part of the change they wish to see, calling the newly trained women diffuse their ideas to those unable to go to the work shop.

In the Sboundet village, Mu Sochua again had a dialogue expressing the role she has as a representative, stressing that development and freedom is their right, that she is working on their behalf. Here, youth voters discussed how they wanted to vote because they want to have an education and a future. Farmers also discussed corruption in government, as well as poverty and land rights, expressing that farmers have been stuck with the same life inside the village.

Although all of the settings were different in nature, there was one thread pulling them together- a dedication and passion to establishing a just and fair democratic society through a dialogue relationship between and among the people.
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By Nicholas Walker-Craig.

About the author: I am currently a Sophomore at the University of Michigan studying Sociology in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am interning under Mu Sochua and will be mostly working with the Youth Wing of the SRP, and will be in Cambodia until August. I'm very excited and honored to be working with the SRP and Mu Sochua!